THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES , DICKENS AND TALFOURD DICKENS AND TALFOURD WITH AN ADDRESS & THREE UNPUBLISHED LETTERS TO TALFOURD, THE FATHER OF THE FIRST COPYRIGHT ACT WHICH PUT AN END TO THE PIRACY OF DICKENS' WRITINGS BY CUMBERLAND CLARK * LONDON: PRIVATELY PRINTED AT THE CHISWICK PRESS 1919 DICKENS AND TALFOURD IR THOMAS NOON TALFOURD, poet, biographer, and lawyer, was born in 1795, so although a con- temporary of Charles Dickens, he was a considerably older man, and when the budding author dedicated " Pickwick " to him Talfourd was a successful dramatic author, a well-known legal light, and a prominent member of Parliament; but Dickens was able to claim him as a private friend and to dedicate his book to him as " a mark of my warmest regard and esteem — as a memorial of the most gratifying- friendship I have ever contracted, and of some of the pleasantest hours I have ever spent," so that Talfourd had evidently early re- cognized the genius of young Dickens and accepted him as a friend and contemporary. This " Pick- wick " dedication, by the way, is a very charming 8661 85 tribute to Talfourd, and it is to be regretted that the modern reprints of this classic so often omit it altogether or curtail it to a few formal words. Talfourd, as we have said, was born in 1795, the son of a brewer at Reading-; he was educated at Mill Hill School, and then studied for the law, being called to the Bar in 182 1. He was one of those brilliant men of whom so many can be men- tioned in the early nineteenth century, who could have won fame in several spheres of activity; it is indeed difficult to classify some of them when it comes to making out those lists of literary, social, legal, political or other celebrities which we like to append to our history books, for some men played so many parts and played them all so well, that if we class one as "statesman " we find we are robbing literature of a brilliant "author," or history of a great "soldier," and so on. We are probably too close to the Victorian era to properly appreciate these men, but in these present days of specialization it is indeed surprising to reflect upon what one man then could and did achieve in a lifetime. By the time Dickens "arrived" (as the saying is) Talfourd was quite a well-known Serjeant at the Bar, was representing his birthplace (Reading) 6 in Parliament (he sat as member for the borough 1835-41), and had gained considerable success both as a writer for the reviews and as a playwright, his tragedy of "Ion' having been received with great applause when produced in 1835; ms " Athenian Captive " and " Massacre of Glencoe ' were likewise very successful plays. In literature Talfourd is, of course, also very intimately con- nected with Charles Lamb, of whom he was a great friend, and became his literary executor; he will always be remembered for his delightful Life and Letters and Final Memorials of the "Gentle Elia." As a politician Talfourd had attracted notice by his important proposals for a Copyright Bill, which much-needed measure was introduced by him in 1837 (and passed with sundry modifica- tions in 1842); Dickens very feelingly refers to this great service in the "Pickwick' dedication we have referred to; in fact he says he would have dedicated "Pickwick" to Talfourd on this score alone, if he had not enjoyed the happiness of his private friendship. "Many a fevered head and palsied hand" (writes Dickens) "will gather new vigour in the hour of sickness and distress from your excellent exertions; many a widowed mother and orphan child, who would otherwise reap 7 nothing from the fame of departed genius but its too frequent legacy of poverty and suffering, will bear, in their altered condition, higher testimony to the value of your labours than the most lavish encomiums from lip or pen could ever afford"; a fine enough epitaph for the Serjeant, if Dickens had not later written a still finer one. Talfourd is an interesting personage also from a legal point of view, as being one of the last, and not least famous, of the " Serjeants-at-Law." This historic and privileged body was already under a cloud when Dickens was writing "Pickwick," for in 1834 William IV, on the recommendation of Lord Brougham, a Chancellor with active ideas of reform, had issued a royal mandate throwing open to the whole of the Bar that sacred hunting-ground of the Serjeants, the Court of Common Pleas; and about 1837 the ancient order of Serjeants was in a state of great perturbation as to their existence ; they succeeded in obtaining a legal decision in favour of their old-established rights, but the spirit of reform was too strong in the land, and in 1846 Parliament finally deprived the Serjeants of their sole rights, and their title and status became prac- tically meaningless. The last name in the last batch of Serjeants created in 1833 was that of 8 Talfourd, and after Lord Brougham had (as he thought) demolished the Serjeants, sundry K.C.'s were created with precedence " next after Thomas Noon Talfourd," which led to the wags of the Temple christening these gentlemen "After- noons," a rather feeble joke which, however, must have taken Dickens' fancy and been the foundation of a well-known "Pickwick" incident; for it will be remembered that when Mr. Peter Magnus in- troduced himself to Mr. Pickwick on the coach journey to Ipswich, he called his particular attention to his initials. " ' Curious circumstance about those initials, Sir,' said Mr. Magnus, 'You will observe — P.M. — post meridian. In hasty notes to intimate acquaintance, I sometimes sign myself "After- noon." It amuses my friends very much, Mr. Pickwick.' ' It is calculated to afford them the highest gratification, I should conceive,' said Mr. Pickwick, rather envying the ease with which Mr. Magnus's friends were entertained." The Judicature Act of 1873 gave the final blow to the " Serjeants-at-Law, " and in 1877 they sold their possessions, their Serjeants Hall, Chapel, Chambers, plate, and furniture, and are now but a legal memory. Talfourd was considered to be well in the running 9 b for a Judgeship, and there was considerable dis- appointment (which is well expressed by Dickens in one of the letters here published) when in 1846 he was passed over in favour of Vaughan Richards ; but the Serjeant gained his well-merited reward in 1849, and was a distinguished ornament to the Judge's Bench until his death, dying in harness, in fact, while charging the Grand Jury at Stafford in 1854. John Forster pays a high tribute to him as a Judge; to quote his words, "he adorned [the Bench] with qualities that are justly the pride of that profession, and with accomplishments which have become more rare in its highest places than they were in former times. His elevation only made those virtues better known. Talfourd as- sumed nothing with the ermine but the privilege of more frequent intercourse with the tastes and friends he loved, and he continued to be the most joyous and least affected of companions." Talfourd, besides his legal and literary distinc- tion, was well-known as a genial host, and his house in Russell Square was the scene of many dinner-parties where would gather all the most popular men of letters and of sciences, lawyers, painters, actors, and other good fellows, among whom we find such well-known names as Dickens, 10 Albert Smith, Douglas Jerrold, Thackeray, Lord Lytton, Macready, Edmund Yates, Procter ("Barry Cornwall "), Blanchard, Sheridan Knowles, Ains- worth, Stanfield, Maclise, Cattermole, Mark Lemon, and of course old John Forster, the " Mutual Friend " of so many of Dickens' circle. Thomas Noon seems to have been a bit of a Bohemian, as indeed many of the leading - lights of that day were; for although things had vastly improved from the times of Charles Fox, and "three bottle" men were not perhaps so leniently looked upon, the early Victorian era was not noted for sobriety, and Dickens and Cruikshank had many a merry night together before the famous artist joined the blue-ribboned army. One of Tal- fourd's contemporaries has recorded that " he dined when most people were in bed," and Charles Sumner, the distinguished American jurist and senator, notes that Talfourd was usually to be met in the morning taking his negus at the Garrick Club (then in King Street) and would be found having his "nightcap' on his way home from Parliament. But he was a temperate man for his day as regards drinking, although Mrs. Lynn Linton does rather unkindly say, "I remember how he kept up the tradition of the then past ii generation, and came into the drawing - - room with a thick speech and unsteady legs " ! He was rather proud of his dramatic offspring, which was not perhaps unnatural; he was probably as well known by his nickname " Ion' Talfourd as he was recognized as ''Serjeant" Talfourd. There is a story that Dickens once told Rogers (the banker-poet) that Talfourd would certainly be one of the guests on a particular night, and on being asked if he were sure he was coming, replied, "Oh yes, because 'Ion' is being acted here that night, and the author is never absent from any of its representations " ! There is also on record a most terrible pun to the (dis)credit of Jerrold, who once asked the Serjeant if he had " any more Ions in the fire " ! It is said that Talfourd played a trick on the great Macready over his play "Glencoe," getting Dickens to submit it to him without any hint as to its authorship ; Macready rather liked the play, and on Talfourd apparently casually asking him about it a few nights later, told him his good opinion of it and said it was rather an imita- tion of his (Talfourd's) style, though without some of his good points ; whereupon Talfourd pulled out the original manuscript and claimed the play as his own work. Macready, it may be noted, considered 12 his part in " Ion " as one of his best performances; there was a very famous celebration at Talfourd's house after the first night of this play, when such literary lions as Wordsworth, Browning-, Savage Landor, and Miss Mitford were present to con- gratulate the author on his success. There is a good anecdote of Talfourd as a dramatic critic ; one night he and Dickens, Forster, Landseer, and Stanfield made up a party to go to see the " Battle of Waterloo," one of Astley's famous " spectacular dramas" ; it happened to be an evening when the u Iron Duke " himself patronised the performance, which made it somewhat interesting, but Talfourd's only comment on the play was a very fervent and frequent wish that " the Prussians would come up ;: and put an end to it! Except for his plays and his Memoirs and Letters of Lamb, most of Talfourd's literary work has gone into the limbo of lost things, as often happens with such ephemeral matter as review articles, etc. ; one of his contributions, however, survives in the " Pic-nic Papers," that series of tales, essays, and poems gratuitously written by various well-known authors under the editorship of Charles Dickens (who himself contributed "The Lamplighter's Story," converted from his unacted farce "The •3 Lamplighter"), and published in 1841 for the benefit of the widow and childrenof Dickens' first publisher, Macrone, who died in great poverty; like most of the enterprises to which Dickens gave his magic touch the book was a considerable success, and realized for the poor widow something like ^300; though it is now seldom read, and then more for the editor's tale than for anything else contained in it. Dickens appears to have become acquainted with Talfourd during his early days as a Law Courts and Parliamentary reporter, and it will have been seen that the acquaintance rapidly ripened into a firm friendship which stood the test of twenty years without a single break. The young novelist was soon a welcome guest at the Russell Square house, and when he in turn blossomed out as a host there was no more frequent guest at his dinner-parties than Talfourd, despite the seventeen years difference in the ages of the two men. What an era this was for dinner-parties, by the way; almost everything that occurred had to be celebrated by a dinner, and what dinners they were! In reading Dickens' life one comes across a dinner every few pages, and it would be pretty safe to say that every one of his books was the occasion of a jovial dinner; Talfourd 14 is recorded as occupying- the vice-chair at the dinner held to celebrate the completion of "Pickwick' ("And an excellent Vice he made," says Harrison Ainsvvorth ; " he speaks with great fervour and tact, and being- really greatly interested in the occasion, exerted himself to the utmost"); he was at the " Nickleby " dinner in 1839; he presided two years later at the one celebrating the successful finish of " Master Humphrey's Clock " ; he was among the merry party at Greenwich who welcomed Dickens home from his first American trip in 1842; and we find him mentioned on other festive occasions again and again. Dickens was equally at home with the kind and cordial Lady Talfourd and her family; there is a very charming letter extant written to little Mary Talfourd just before his first visit to America; the child had asked him to dine with her on her birthday, but Dickens has to reply that unfortunately he cannot do so, he will soon be leaving his own children for six long months. "But although" (he writes) "I cannot come to see you on that day, you may be sure I shall not forget that it is your birthday, and that I shall drink your health and many happy returns in a glass of wine, filled full as it will hold. And I shall dine at half-past five myself, so that we may both '5 be drinking our wine at the same time; and I shall tell my Mary (for I have got a daughter of that name but she is a very small one as yet) to drink your health too." His own Mary must have been the daughter familiarly known as " Mamie," and as she was born in 1838 (his second child) it would appear that children in Dickens' time started wine- bibbing pretty early! a fact which of course was emphasised very strongly by Cruikshank in his famous picture "The Triumph of Bacchus." Talfourd was of great assistance to Dickens in the latter's fight against the unscrupulous pirates who produced such bare-faced imitations of the novelist's books — a very interesting chapter in the history of Dickens. No sooner did he begin to publish a successful novel than some catch-penny printer would issue a miserable parody under a title just sufficiently different to secure himself (as he thought) from legal consequences, but so similar as to obviously be intended to deceive the purchaser into thinking he was buying the work of the "In- imitable Boz " ; the fact of Dickens' earlier books being published under a pseudonym, and the lax state of the copyright laws at the time, being all in the pirates' favour. Thousands of people who had heard vaguely of the clever "Sketches by 16 Boz " were no doubt entrapped into buying the rubbishy ''Sketch Book by Bos" issued in 1837 by Lloyd of Wych Street, a publisher who figures prominently among the piratical fraternity, being responsible for several Pickwick plagiarisms, such as "The Posthumous Notes of the Pickwickian Club," (also issued in parts as "The Penny Pick- wick "), " Posthumous Papers of the Cadger's Club," and "Pickwick in America"; while the market was flooded with such works as " Pickwick- ian Songsters," " The Pickwick Comic Almanac," "The Pickwick Treasury of Wit," "Mr. Pickwick's Collection of Songs," " Pickwick Abroad," " Sam Weller's Jestbook," and so on. No doubt at first Dickens looked upon these imitations as the "sin- cerest form of flattery," and they may have been in some ways an advertisement for him, but when it came to " Oliver Twist" being followed part by part by no less than two piracies under the titles "Oliver Twiss, by Bos," and "Oliver Twiss, by Poz " (one of these actually bearing the notification "Copyright secured by Act of Parliament"! a sublime piece of impudence), Dickens thought it time to take some action, and on " Nicholas Nickleby ' being immediately imitated by " Nick- elas Nickleberry ' (not to mention a few other 17 c piracies like " Nickleby Papers" and " Nickleby Married ") he penned an emphatic warning " Pro- clamation '" against these " cheap and wretched imitations," which was inserted in various maga- zines and reviews at the time. It had very little effect, however, and in 1841 he was driven to take legal action over one of the irrepressible Lloyd's publications, "Mister Humfries' Clock," and suc- ceeded m scotching that pestiferous pirate ; then he gained another action in 1842, with heavy damages, against " Parley's Penny Library," a doubly piratical work, for it not only pilfered selections from "Master Humphrey's Clock" (even copying the woodcuts) but also borrowed the name of "Peter Parley" (otherwise Samuel Griswold Goodrich, an American author, who had nothing whatever to do with the publication); and finally in 1844 he completely crushed the gang who were pirating his "Christmas Carol" and "Martin Chuzzlewit." This was a case of such peculiar flagrancy that the Vice-Chancellor would not even hear Dickens' counsel, Talfourd, "and what it cost our dear friend" (says Forster) "to suppress his speech exceeded by very much the labour and pains with which he had prepared it." Dickens wrote exultantly after leaving the court on the 1 8th of January, "the pirates are beaten 18 flat. They are bruised, bloody, battered, smashed, squelched, and utterly undone. Knight Bruce would not hear Talfourd, but instantly gave judgement. He had interrupted Anderton constantly by asking him to produce a passage which was not an expanded or contracted idea from my book. And at every successive passage he cried out, " That is Mr. Dickens' case. Find another"! He said that there was not a shadow of doubt upon the matter. That there was no authority which would bear a construction in their favour ; the piracy going beyond all previous instances. And in a letter two days later he says, "Oh! the agony of Tal- fourd at Knight Bruce's not hearing him ! He had sat up till three in the morning, he says, preparing his speech ; and would have done all kinds of things with the affidavits." However, Talfourd had been an immense help to Dickens in all these legal proceedings, and had the satisfaction of seeing his friend's rights protected, though there were some subsequent piratical attempts such as " Dombey and Daughter" (whose author was the notorious Renton Nicholson, "Lord Chief Baron' of the bacchanalian "Judge and Jury' Club) also a "Dombey and Son Finished," and an American " Dolby and Father, by Buz." Talfourd was among those friends of Dickens *9 who are supposed to have served the novelist as studies for characters in his books; he was more fortunate than some (Leigh Hunt, for instance, who will always be saddled with Harold Skimpole's faults), for Talfourd is said to be the prototype of Tommy Traddles in " David Copperfield," who is at least a lovable character, from the time we meet him at Salem House in his tight sky-blue suit, always being caned, and finding solace in drawing skeletons, down to the last chapter in the book, where we find the dear fellow cheerfully giving up all the best rooms of his house to his wife's family, and squeezing his papers into a dressing-room with his boots, "exactly the same simple, unaffected fellow as he ever was." Certainly the character of Traddles reflects some of Talfourd's loyal and lov- able nature, and there is very little doubt but that Dickens, when painting Tommy Traddles, drew from his old friend, Thomas Noon Talfourd. Forster tells us that Dickens had no friend he was more attached to, and such small oddities or foibles as Talfourd had, only made him secretly dearer to Dickens, and it was in a spirit of pure affection that he reproduced some of these little traits in the character of Traddles. It was certainly a coin- cidence that in the closing chapters of ll Copper- 20 field " it is suggested that the ultimate destiny of Traddles will be the Bench, for it was just at this time that Talfourd gained his judgeship, which must surely have suggested to Dickens the hinted end of the career of Tommy Traddles. Talfourd was, of course, an admirer of his friend's writings; he wrote a sonnet in praise of " Oliver Twist," and it is said that he displayed a particular affection for that arrant young rascal the " Artful Dodger," for whom he pleaded with Dickens "as earnestly in mitigation of judgment as ever at the bar for any client he most respected." This reminds one of another famous lawyer, Lord Jeffrey, who was so enamoured of the character of Little Nell that he pleaded most earnestly that she should be allowed to live, and was found by a friend sitting in his library chair in the greatest grief, his head on the table and his eyes filled with tears, because "little Nelly, Boz's little Nelly, is dead " ; a won- derful tribute indeed to Dickens' literary skill and fascination. As another instance of the friendship of these two men, it may be noted that one of the novelist's earliest public readings was given at Reading in 1854, m response to a request by Talfourd that his birthplace should be so favoured ; and it is a curious 21 fact, that when Talfourd retired from Parliament in 1841 Dickens was approached with a view to his standing for his old friend's constituency of Reading, which one can hardly suppose was a mere coincidence. Talfourd's untimely death by apoplexy in only his sixtieth year was a great blow to his friends, and many were the contemporary tributes to his memory. Serjeant Ballantine says: "Those who knew him will never forget his kindly, genial face, the happiness radiating from it when imparting pleasure to others, and his generous hospitality"; while Edmund Yates feelingly speaks of the house so long genially presided over by the " kindly host with short-cropped iron-grey hair and beaming face "; but the finest eulogy of Talfourd is Dickens' beautiful tribute. "This upright judge and good man," says Dickens, "died suddenly at Stafford in the discharge of his duties. Mercifully spared protracted pain and mental decay, he passed away in a moment, with words of Christian eloquence, of brotherly tenderness and kindness towards all men, yet unfinished on his lips. So amiable a man, so gentle, so sweet-tempered, of such a noble sim- plicity, so perfectly unspoiled by his labours and their rewards, is very rare indeed upon this earth. 22 . . . The chief delight of his life was to give delight to others. His nature was so exquisitely kind that to be kind was his highest happiness. Those who had the privilege of seeing him in his own home, when his public successes were greatest — so modest, so contented with little things, so in- terested in humble persons and humble efforts, so surrounded by children and young people, so adored in remembrance of a domestic generosity andgreatness of heart too sacred to be unveiled here, can never forget the pleasure of that sight. . . . The hand that lays this poor flower on his gravewas a mere boy's when he first clasped it — newly come from the work in which he himself began life — little used to the plough it has followed since — obscure enough, with much to correct and learn. Each of its successive tasks through many intervening years has been cheered by his warmest interest, and the friendship then begun has ripened to maturity in the passage of time; but there was no more self- assertion or condescension in his winning goodness at first than at last. The success of other men made as little change in him as his own." Happy, indeed, the man who could have such an epitaph as this ! and there seems to us some- thing strangely prophetic in this tribute, for surely 2 o the greater part of it might have been spoken very truly over Dickens' grave a few years later. The letters from Dickens to Talfourd here pub- lished are full of interesting allusions (like nearly all Dickens' correspondence), and are also excellent specimens of his charming epistolary style, which few other letter-writers can match. The earliest one is written from Doughty Street, Dickens' first London house after he left chambers and lodgings, and is dated December 28th, 1838; he thanks Talfourd very feelingly for his " beautiful and most gratifying- remembrance of me, which as long as I live will afford me the truest pleasure and de- light and will be the pride of those who are dearest to me"; and he mentions an invitation sent to Russell Square for a * ' little party' to celebrate the double event of the christening of his eldest daughter Mary (or Mamie) and the first anniver- sary of the birthday of his eldest son Charles ; these first two children of Dickens, it may be noted, outlived several of his later offspring and both died in the same year, 1896. The next letter is from the well-known Devon- shire Terrace address, and written in 1845 (October 22nd); Dickens had arranged to go to Manchester 24 with Talfourd, where the latter was to speak at a Soiree given by the Manchester Athenaeum (his speech there, by the way, was said to be the most eloquent he had ever made outside his professional orations), but owing - to his wife's indisposition Dickens has to reluctantly abandon the trip; he mentions that he has written a speech for Frank Stone, the painter (father of the Marcus Stone so well known to a later generation) who is one of the "Invited Guests," being* a Manchester man; and he also says that he has given Douglas Jerrold a few hints for his speech, particularly to mention Talfourd's old connection with the press (he had been a "Times" reporter in his young days on the Oxford Circuit). Jerrold had told Dickens u he was no speaker (which is true) but he thought he could do that much." The enquiry at the end of this letter as to the best reporter in Manchester is significant, for Dickens was just on the eve of his great adventure, the starting of the "Daily News," and was evidently on the look-out for some smart young journalists to assist him. The third letter is dated from Geneva, October 21, 1846, and is a particularly interesting one; it was written during his long holiday in Switzerland, taken after his short but strenuous experience as 25 d editor of a daily newspaper (though it was one of Dickens' usual ''working" holidays, for he wrote one of the Christmas books — the " Battle of Life " — and most of " Dombey and Son v there), and refers to the pleasant visit the Talfourds had just paid him at Lausanne. But the best part of this letter refers to Talfourd's disappointment over the judgeship (already mentioned in these pages), and expresses the indignation and disappointment felt by the Serjeant's friends at his being passed over in the selection; Dickens, however, offers some excellent consolation and pays a flattering testi- monial to Talfourd's present high position at the bar and still higher position in the hearts of his friends; he points out that " the world of letters and fancy cannot afford to lose you; and that however you might remain with it, and be true to it, as I knew you would, even if you were a Judge, you are more its property as you are, and can show your feeling for it in a thousand little ways which would then be closed to you." This charming letter also mentions Dickens' wife and sister-in-law (Georgina Hogarth), while "Toby" is probably his son Charles. The 4< Address written for the occasion of the Amateur Performance at Manchester, on Monday, 26 • July 26th, 1847, for the benefit of Mr. Leigh Hunt, by Mr. Serjeant Talfourd, spoken by Mr. Charles Dickens, and printed by Bradbury & Evans, Printers, Whitefriars " is here reprinted verbatim from, I believe, a unique (certainly a very rare) copy in my collection. Prefixed to the " Address " is the cast of the three plays performed that even- ing. "Every Man in his Humour," "A Good Night's Rest," and "Turning the Tables." Dickens appeared in all three plays, as will be seen from the list of characters. It had been intended that the performance should take place in London, but the Civil List pension of ,£200 per annum being granted almost simul- taneously with the project, and possibly occasioned by the suggestion of a "benefit" for the veteran author, it was eventually decided to play at Man- chester and Liverpool — the city's name being spoken in the last line but one as the venue de- manded — a few hundred pounds in ready money was thus obtained: Leigh Hunt died in 1859, thus pre-deceasing Dickens by eleven years. CUMBERLAND CLARK. 27 Doughty St., December 2&th 1838. My dear Talfourd I cannot thank you too much — I cannot thank you enough for your most beautiful and most gratifying - remembrance of me, which as long as I live will afford me the truest pleasure and delight, and will be the pride of those who are dearest to me, many long years after I have been removed from those pursuits which such praise as yours and such friends as you render a delight indeed. I find that I shall not be able to ride on Sunday, but at dinner time I joyfully hold myself engaged to you. A card of invitation to a little party on the 7th when we christen one of our children and keep the birthday of the other, has gone to Russell Square for you. I hope as you were with us last year, you will stretch a point to give us the same gratification on the coming anniversary. 29 Will you frank the accompanying letter for me, and let it go to the Post with yours? The direction is on the back of the envelope ; the name of which I have not written very plainly M.E.T.Z. Believe me always My dear Talfourd Most faithfully Yours CHARLES DICKENS Mr. Sergeant Talfourd. 30 Devonshire Terrace Wednesday Twenty Second October 1845. My Dear Talfourd. My other half remains in such a doubtful state, that I cannot win any cheerful consent from her to my being absent from home. Apart from my own anxieties, it would be cruel, therefore, to attempt the Manchester flight. And I have been most re- luctantly obliged to write by this post to the Athenaeum people, excusing myself. Like Tony Lumpkin I shouldn't so much have minded dis- appointing them, but I can't abide to disappoint myself; and I had set my hopes on being by your side. So much for myself. A little more for business. Stone, the painter (whom you know) will be present, as one of the Invited Guests. He is a Manchester Man; and this is the first occasion on which he will have met his fellow townsmen, since he left the place an unknown student. I have reason to suppose that he is desperately anxious to be called up — and I found the supposition on the 3i slight incidents of his having" implored me to write him a short speech, and on my having done so. Verbum sap : I saw Jerrold last night; and told him that if, in alluding to you, he could establish the presence of mind to advert to your old connection with the Press when you were a younger man, I believed it would not be distasteful to you. He said he was no speaker (which is true) but he thought he could do that much, easily and plainly. I thought it best to give him this hint: remembering a con- versation I had with Forster some weeks ago. There are two or three very good reporters in Manchester — I think the best one is on the Guar- dian. Will you have an eye on the local papers, and tell me when you come back (when I will tell you my reason for wishing- to know) where your speech is best done, and whether it is anywhere well done? With best remembrances to Mrs. Talfourd and Miss Ely I am always My Dear Talfourd affectionately yours CHARLES DICKENS. Mr Sergeant Talfourd. 32 Geneva. Wednesday. October Twenty First 1846. My Dear Talfourd. I am very glad to hear that you all arrived at home safely, and that Frank received the great coat which the Brave Courier sent in quest of him. The appointment of the new Judge I had seen in the newspapers. I dare say I felt very much as you did, on the subject — indignant and disappointed at first, but very soon reconciled to the thing. I had had very little doubt in my own mind, I confess, that if the Solicitor General were not the Judge, you would be, — as everybody knows you had a first claim to that distinction at the hands of the present Government, — and therefore I had an uncomfort- able feeling when I saw Vaughan Richards' name. But my sources of consolation are these. — In the first place I sincerely believe you are happier at the Bar, in your high position there, than you would be on the Bench. Hoisted up to that small eleva- tion, you would be lifted out of the reach of a vast number of means of daily pleasure and variety in which you have as keen an interest as any man 33 E alive, and which, to one of your generous tastes and sympathies, are worth all the ermine that ever grew since the deluge. Secondly (and more sel- fishly) I feel that the world of letters and fancy cannot afford to lose you : and that however you might remain with it, and be true to it, as I know you would, even if you were a Judge, you are more its property as you are, and can show your feeling for it in a thousand little ways which would then be closed to you. It is a part of your graceful and enviable position at present that no Government going, gone, or to come, could enlarge its circle of various usefulness; but it might easily contract it, and I do not like to think that my small corner of it might be cramped — for literature wants such men as you, sorely. That is the way I make the best of the business. There has been a revolution here, since you were at Lausanne, and a few houses have been knocked about by cannon balls. With that exception every- thing is as it was, and in perfect peace and order. Snow has fallen on the hills about Lausanne : and their white tops are a great improvement to the beauty of the scene. Kate and her sister ask me to send all sorts of remembrances and loves to Mrs. Talfourd and 34 Mary (and to Miss Ely too) in which I join as heartily as an honest gentleman may. I am de- lighted by all the news I hear of Dombey of course, and am resting now, for a few days, after finishing the Christmas Book. Toby is coming over here on Friday, to be presented with a watch for his quick picking-up of French. Ever believe me My dear Talfourd Most affectionately Yours CD. 35 ADDRESS written for the occasion of the AMATEUR PERFORMANCE AT MANCHESTER, on Monday, July 26, 1847, for the benefit of MR. LEIGH HUNT, by MR. SERJEANT TALFOURD. Spoken by MR. CHARLES DICKENS. 37 THEATRE ROYAL, MANCHESTER. Amateur Performance. On Monday Evening, July 26th, 1847, will be performed Ben Jonson's Comedy of EVERY MAN IN HIS HUMOUR. Characters Knowell, an Old Gentleman . Mr. G. H. Lewes. Edward Knowell, his Son . . Mr. Frederick Dickens. Brainworm, the Father's Man . Mr. Mark Lemon. George Downright, a plain Squire Mr. Frank Stone. Wellbred, his Half-brother . . Mr. T. J. Thompson. Kitely, a Merchant .... Mr. Forster. Captain Bobadil, a Paul's Man Mr. Charles Dickens. Master Stephen, a Country Gull Mr. Douglas Jerrold. Master Mathew, the Town Gull Mr. John Leech. Thomas Cash, Kitely \s Cashier Mr. Augustus Dickens. Oliver Cob, a Water Bearer . Mr. Augustus Egg. Justice Clement, an old merry Magistrate Mr. Dudley Costello. Roger Formal, his Clerk . . Mr. Geo. Cruikshank. William, his Servant. James, Wellbred's Servant. Dame Kitely, Kitely's Wife . Miss Emmeline Montague. Mistress Bridget, his Sister . Mrs. A. Wigan. (Of the Theatre-Royal, Haymarket.) Tib, Cob's Wife Mrs. Caulfield. (Of the Theatre-Royal, English Opera House.) Previous to the Comedy The Overture to ' ' Fra Diavolo. " 38 After which, Mrs. Gore's Interlude, in One Act, called A GOOD NIGHT'S REST; or, Two o'clock in the Morning. Characters. Mr. Snobbington Mr. Charles Dickens. The Stranger Mr. Mark Lemon. To conclude with Mr. Poole's Farce of TURNING THE TABLES. Knibbs Jeremiah Bumps Edgar de Courcy Thornton Jack Humphries Miss Knibbs Mrs. Humphries Patty Larkins . Characters. Mr. Geo. Cruikshank. Mr. Charles Dickens. Mr. Dudley Costello. Mr. Frederick Dickens. Mr. G. H. Lewes. Miss Anne Ro.mer. Mrs. Caulfield. Mrs. A. Wigan. Previous to the Interlude The Overture to "La Gazza Ladra." Previous to the Farce The Overture to il Massaniello." 39 ADDRESS Written by MR. SERJEANT TALFOURD. Spoken by MR. CHARLES DICKENS. If without practis'd skill or conscious power We dare usurp the stage one golden hour, And step from stern realities of care The motley shapes of ancient wit to wear, No hope is ours, the finer traits to seize Of those whose genial lives are spent to please, — The plea on which we gentle audience claim Is not slight talent, but an honest aim ; That aim, though little its success avail, To cast one grain in Fortune's lighter scale, And help the World's wrong balance to redress Between the men who prosper, and who bless. Alas! The world too oft unheeding slights The " liveried Angel " who its glory lights, And while it takes the brightness for its own Leaves those who struck it forth, to grieve alone ; 41 F Whom sadly shrouded from its outward eye, In solitude it " willingly lets die! " As the rapt wanderer o'er some mountain scene, Sees, 'mid the barren vale, a streak of green Where some lone rill embedded in its reeds Is only track'd by Beauty that it feeds. So minds which bid the social surface glow, Expend their silent purity below! There have been poets whose austere appeal To distant times, forbade the world to feel Their excellence in sympathy which glows, — Chill'd by the marble of its deep repose; But Nature, sometimes, in her grace has given To common forms of earth, the hues of Heav'n, And blest the living Bard with such sweet fame As makes Leigh Hunt an English household name ! Breath'd in the deepest green of lone retreats, Mix'd with the cheerful music of the streets, Blest as by southern seas the Pilgrim roams. And felt in gladness of a thousand homes ! But, of all scenes in varied life outspread, Through which his genius, loving light has shed, None to our grateful wish such fitness lends As this around — a Theatre of Friends ! He, if a poet might select a sphere To feel a people's love, would choose it here. 42 As to the Pit of other days, he brought, The laws of kindness from the stores of thought; With graphic art prolong'd the airy stage, And gave its fleeting charms another age ; So, here, where crowds have loved, and wept, and laugh'd, A wish the land will echo, let us waft, That in life's calm, a recompense be found For patient years by gracious justice crown'd, And the worn friend of Beauty, Hope, and Truth, Renew in honour'd age, his generous youth ! And, if the influence of this night should shed Some comfort on Another's weary head, Who tinted Humour's shapes with Fancy's dyes, To make the world more merry and more wise, And now, by labour for its mirth opprest, Asks for the o'erwrought brain its evening rest, The Giver's part of kindness shall become A precious item in the glorious sum Which Manchester lays up in deathless store, — And its great heart admit one blessing more! 4:. CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WH1TT1NGHAM AND CO. TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. ■a|?y ur -■ ■' PR Clark - U583 Dickens and C5Ud Talfourd UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 000 365 185